Little Investigator Calls for Action Over Wanaka's Slanted Landmarks

A six-year-old has put it in writing that the buildings at Puzzling World are "wrong" and that "somebody should fix them". He reached this conclusion after standing on the front lawn for a quarter of an hour on Sunday, waiting for one to fall over.

Otis Ferreira, who is in Year 2, was not consoled by being told the tilt is deliberate. "He asked who did it," said his mother, Pauline Ferreira, 34, of Wanaka. "I said the man who built it. He asked if the man had been told off. I said no, the man got an award. He's been quiet since. Bloody sixteen dollars to get him that upset, too."

The complaint, written in green felt-tip, was handed to a staff member at the gift shop and placed face-down on the counter. A Queenstown couple in the queue behind the Ferreiras then asked whether any of the leaning buildings were available to rent. They had seen a shed with a view listed on their side of the Crown Range last week as "entry-level". Staff said no. The couple asked about lease-to-own. Staff said no again, more slowly.

A Queenstown Lakes District Council spokesperson confirmed the structures are fully consented and "structurally sound at the angle at which they were intended to be sound". Asked whether the lean might be corrected in response to the complaint, the spokesperson said this would require a resource consent, a geotechnical report, and "at minimum, a level".

My late husband Gerald built a shed on our section in 1981 with a spirit level and a thermos, and it is still plumb. That is more than can be said for the Ferreiras' rental. Pauline confirmed their lounge floor slopes four centimetres towards the fridge and the landlord calls this "character". Otis has not written a complaint about that one. He thinks it's normal.